No Easy Button

One of the first things I realized when I decided to make some life changes was that I'd made some mistakes over the years.

Coloring my own hair (oh, the pictures!). Carpeting the living room (owners of little dogs understand why). Tequila shots (always a mistake. Always.) My four kids? Always and forever, never a mistake! I LOVE my life and have enjoyed every minute of momhood (well, maybe not the ones that involved poopy diapers!)

But looking back, I did use my children as an excuse to avoid keeping up with my "outside" education. In fact, I made lots of excuses for not taking the classes that would have kept me up-to-date in my field. I think the biggest issue here was that by the time I quit working, I was so over my chosen field that I had no desire to ever go back to it. I realized that when I was in college, I'd probably made a mistake choosing journalism as a major. I  loved to write, but I enjoyed creative writing more than any kind of hard-hitting journalistic endeavors, and I found there wasn't a lot of money to be made writing poetry (amazing, huh?). For me, journalism was the "easy" major - the writing and editing came naturally to me but wasn't what I loved to do (and it wasn't exactly lucrative either!) 

I was fortunate that raising children became a career in and of itself. By the time I had my third child I figured this parenting thing was my true calling. When I did go back to work - as a teacher's assistant at my children's preschool - it was in a field that was a natural extension of raising children. Please know - I am not saying that only moms make good preschool teachers. I'm saying that for me, working with little kids was second nature... I understood the art of making playdough. I valued the chaos-to-stillness of resttime. I loved being "home base" when the kiddies played tag on the playground. Mom to "Mrs. Johnson" was an easy, easy transition. Nowadays I realize that while the little guys are fun, I'm not sure if it's something that will lend itself to a lifelong career. Easy? For me, probably more so than picking something else. 

But these days, I'm starting to figure out that maybe it's time to stop looking for the "easy button."

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One of the things I've discovered since starting this whole project is there are many, many people out there looking to be something different when They Grow Up. I don't think this is a phenomenon limited to stay-at-home moms or any other population, but that there are lots of people in my age category and beyond (40+ thank you!) who are realizing that maybe the job they've been doing for the last 10-15-20 years is not paying the bills and/or allowing them to save towards retirement. Some are being forced to enter other career areas because their jobs have been outsourced to other countries. Some are watching their children grow up and thinking that maybe, just maybe, it's time to do what they "always wanted to do" instead of slogging away at a job that pays the financial bills but is taking a mental/emotional toll in return.

Whatever the reason, we're going to explore some of the options out there for continuing education, for changing jobs entirely, and for just adding in some hobbies that maybe make the rest of life a bit more palatable. Along the way I hope you will feel compelled to share your journey and tell us what's making your life a little more interesting or enjoyable, whether it's a class, reading a great book, starting a new job, or just something awesome that your kids or grandkids might say or accomplish.